JORDAN CRATERS BIRCH CREEK JORDON VALLEY SILVER CITY

 

RIDERS – JOHN KTM 950

BYRON KTM 950

KURT KTM 950

KEITH & WENDY 955 TIGER

Did a pre –ride for part of trip we will make to Steens Mountain in a couple of weeks. Want to find more dirt roads into Fields.

Walters Ferry=>Sommer Camp=> Birch Creek Ranch=>Jordon Crater => Jordan Valley =>

Silver City

~250 miles from my house.

STOP AT JUNCTION ALONG JORDON CRATERS ROAD

 

VIEW OR LAVA FLOWS FROM JORDAN CRATER ROAD

 

VIEW OF OWYHEE RIVER CANYON FROM BIRCH CREEK ROAD .

PAINTED HILL

BIRCH CREEK RANCH                                                                           WATER WHEEL

                                                                                                               ONCE USED TO IRRIGATE FIELD.

 

OWYHEE RIVER TAKE OUT AT PINNACLE RANCH (BLM PARK)

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JORDAN CRATER PARKING LOT    JORDON CRATER VENT

YOU KNOW YOUR CHOICE IS TO BE ENSLAVED BY PELOSI’S ENERGY TAX- OR- THE EARTH WILL SOON LOOK LIKE THIS !

WE HIKED OUT ACROSS THE LAVA FIELDS TO TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THE SINKHOLES . THEY WERE IMPRESSIVE! ALSO COULD HEAR THE LAVA TUBES ECHOING BELOW OUR FEET FROM TIME TO TIME.

 

GOOD RIDE ! THE ALTERNATIVE WOULD HAVE TO STAID HOME AND WATCH MICHEL JACKSON NEWS.

HUNTER CREEK & DURBIN CREEK

Have you ever had one of those weeks?

* Remember last Thursday 6/4 , I forgot my boots but still got a 45 mile ride in.

* Then Monday 6/8 I got another 65 mile dirt bike ride .

* On Tuesday 6/9 I had to change my chain , sprockets, brake pads & spark plug . 2K MILES ON THE NEW 300 !

* To top it off I had to ride the 950 ( Major Kong needs new shoes) thru Oregon on Wednesday 6/10 to finish off the Durbin Creek section where we lost the trail.

I also personally saved or created 200,000 jobs in the process even though it was above my pay grade.

		MORE DATA! KTM + IDAHO = SUPERIOR SMILES / GAL

Monday 6/10 - Lime Creek w/ David Jones & Murray Avison ~65 miles Sheep Dive => Prez => NF Lime Creek=> Grouse Butte=> Sheep Drive Cool & damp when we left the truck. We needed the pac jackets to ride the road. Road was pretty sloppy from the weekend rains so we decided to ride Sheep Drive in & out to avoid the deep water crossings. Next ride they promised to take me up the Middle Fork Trail.

Me catching up on Sheep Drive. I had a couple of episodes along the way. Murray scouting a short side hill section along Sheep Drive.

Bottom of President along Middle Fork of Lime Creek.

Lunch break on North Fork of Lime Creek. Great tight trail, just needs a few more riders down it. Any volunteers? BHO says time for self sacrifice!

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“Durbin Creek” Ride ~ 290 miles Wed 6/10/09 Byron & I tried to finish the Durbin creek leg we lost during the Halfway ride. We approached from the Huntington side but were stymied again. The road ended at a ranch. No one was at home and we couldn’t find anyone to ask for permission to ride across the ranch. We still made a loop thru Bridgeport and back around to Malheur Reservoir => Vale => Boise. Interesting country, big vista’s but not something I would do over & over. I picked up several maps of eastern & central Oregon at the Vale BLM office.

I saw this out side the Lowe’s on Eagle Rd. Byron’s Big Adventure Bike !

Inside the Homestead café in Weiser, 813 State Street. Byron had the “HALF & HALF” while I had the “BIG MESS”.

Vista’s along the “Trail Creek/ Huntington” road.

Over looking Clark’s Creek. Clarksville was a mining area during the gold rush days.

Malheur City- It once must have a going concern, but all that seems left is this stone wall and the cemetery.

There were several monuments of people born in the 1830’s and of siblings who died weeks apart. They didn’t have “BIG PHARM” in those days !

Malheur Reservoir.

"IT TAKES A VILLIAGE TO RIDE A DIRT BIKE"- HILLARY CLINTON 1994

 

Finally made it to Lime Creek this week (Thursday). Originally tried Tuesday but were rained out. It was a pretty steady rain on Tuesday. After waiting around & driving into Fairfield for burger it still wasn’t clearing up in the mountains, so we called it. When were unloading the bikes on Thursday I REALIZED I FORGOT MY BOOTS !!!!!! Fortunately David was thinking and had me call my oldest, Mitch. Mitch brought my boots and met us at the PILOT truck stop in Mountain Home. We lost a couple of hours but we eventually got on the bikes. I think we accomplished a GREEN SCORE pretty close to zero. Between the 2 days of driving we racked up 400 miles for 45 miles of trail riding. Plus we ate burgers both days and saw lots of sheep. MAKES ME PROUD !

 

Cattle drive on HWY 20. They were escorted by “COPS”-Citizens on Patrol -average age looked to be ~85. Hand signals for stop & were the same.

 

Bridge over Lime Creek on Sheep Drive Trail

End of Sheep Drive Trail ???????? We may have lost the official trail in a burn area.

President Trail- The rain rolled in ~ 10 minutes after this photo. All the way down Prez we had a light rain. Because of the rain we decided not to do the North Fork Trail. There were some mud holes approaching the Middle Fork but the creek crossing itself wasn’t bad. David was almost across the South Fork when he bobbled and dropped his bike. (It was raining so no pics!) It took about 15-20 minutes to dewater the bike & with the spark plug wire attached it fired in a few kicks.

 

Back at the corrals. It looked like the real storm was just starting to roll into the mountains. We made the right call not to extend the ride & had good timing on the creek crossings.

Traveling Teutonic Brotherhood ( and Obama Fan Club)

 

Byron Defenbach ,” Trail Czar”- KTM 950 Kurt Bossart -KTM 950 John Aiton - KTM 950 Thad Brunelli - BMW 1200 GS Byron lead us on an adventure ride to Halfway Or the weekend of 5/30-5/31., a good mix of pavement, D&G roads and short stretched of 4X4 two tracks. Total loop was ~ 450 miles. Saturday we headed north thru Ola then west to Weiser. We had lunch at the Homestead Café, I highly recommend it. From Weiser we followed 201 to Huntington, the Snake River road to Morgan Creek and up Lookout Mt.

Cattle drive on the Morgan Creek Road. They moved them off for us on the flat spot on top.

Lookout Mt Road

The road up to the Lookout Mt “lookout” was gated and locked. We then headed down Daley Creek road into Richland and Halfway.

View from Daley Creek above Richland

Halfway Oregon – small quite and a along way from a motorcycle shop.

Al, one of Byron’s riding buddies, lives in Halfway says every winter there is a women’s snow machine rally. They light up the place and it’s best to stay out of town.

Sunday we made our way thru the mountains west of Halfway on FSR77 & 67 to Baker City.

View from Carson Ridge above Halfway. Kurt.

Stop along Eagle Creek.

Medicine Springs on the way into Baker

We had lunch in Baker then went over Dooley Summit and followed the Burnt River.

Bridgeport intersection. A rancher pulled up and gave us some pointers on the different roads.

Glengarry Gulch

Rye Valley from Durban Creek Road.

We tried following Durban Creek Road to I84. The fork we probably should have taken was locked.

This rough two track took us across the basin  to another locked gate and the gps indicated a dead end just beyond the gate at a small reservoir anyway. So we back tracked and rode Rye Valley to I84 => Huntington. From Huntington we “freight trained” from Huntington=> Payette => Emmett.